Actis emerges as lead contender in $500 mn race for Macquarie's India clean energy platform Stride Climate

India has set an ambitious renewable energy target of 500 GW of installed capacity by 2030.

UK based Actis, a leading global investor in sustainable infrastructure, has edged ahead of other suitors in a tightly contested race to acquire Stride Climate Investments, an Indian renewable energy platform owned by the Macquarie Group, three persons in the know told Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.

" Actis is now seen as the front-runner for this deal and has edged ahead of the rest," said one of the persons above. Sembcorp, JSW Neo Energy and Torrent Power were also in the fray earlier, according to reports.

A second person confirmed the same.

Also Read: Why India has a long way to go before achieving the 2030 renewable capacity target

According to a third person, the enterprise value for the entire platform, which consists of solar power assets, is expected to be around $500 mn.

Email queries along with reminders sent to Actis and Macquarie Group were left unanswered at the time of publishing this article. This article will be updated as soon as we hear from both the firms.

Investment bank BofA Securities is acting as the sell side advisor for the proposed deal, as per an earlier report.

Also Read: Renewable, green energy stocks shine as government announces ambitious plans

According to its LinkedIn page, Stride Climate Investments, a platform of Macquarie managed funds, was founded in 2017 and currently has more than 415 MWs of renewable assets in India. The firm is based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Interestingly, global private equity firm General Atlantic announced the acquisition of Actis in January 2024, creating a platform with around $96 bn in combined assets under management.

In India, Actis already has a renewable energy firm in its portfolio , namely Gurugram based BluPine Energy which was established to develop and execute 4 GW of utility & C&I ( commercial and industrial) scale renewable energy projects with a committed equity of $800 million.

BluPine Energy has wind, solar and C&I verticals and in September, commissioned its first solar project of 120 MW in Gujarat.

India has set an ambitious renewable energy target of 500 GW of installed capacity by 2030.
On October 17, Moneycontrol released an analysis of data from the last 10 years which shows that solar capacity has expanded at a quicker rate than other renewable sources. Until September 30, solar capacity addition had reached 90.8 GW compared with 3.7 GW in 2015. The centre has a target of 292 GW of solar capacity by 2030. On the other hand, installed wind capacity doubled to 47.4 GW from 23.4 GW in 2015. The target for wind capacity is 100 GW.